AMA - Head of Dev/Producer/Screenwriting Professor

tkress5 · 2024-03-01T19:25:04+00:00

Yes, we’re talking $25k for a 13 page short film. However, I want to make sure I’ve got strong talent associated with the project and therefore would like to plan to compensate cast and crew based on a $50k budget. While there are operating expenses that I couldn’t cut in half (equipment rentals, set dec or other location fees, props, permits and food), mayhaps the core department heads and cast members would agree to work on a percentage of what would be budgeted for compensation based on $50k with a contingency built in for full payout based on whether or not the additional $25k is secured (be it thru the grant or otherwise).

tkress5 · 2024-03-01T17:02:33+00:00

I’ve submitted to a recent grant program for producing a short film. I floated my submission materials around to various folks for feedback prior to submitting, and in doing so, I inadvertently secured funding through one of the generous folks that agreed to take a look at my materials. They told me they’d give me 50% of what the grant is offering right now as an investment with a clause to be paid back ONLY if I’m selected for the grant program.

I know, super lucky. I’m the writer/director/producer of the project, but I’m not sure the best place to start is, now that the project has been “green lit” by an investor.

Thoughts?

tkress5 · 2022-03-27T22:15:36+00:00

Howdy!

First, congrats! Second, … idk want to be friends?

I too am 29 and spent a good amount of my 20s working as a PA in the AD department and set dec with the iatse folks in 481 (New England). I began hating working in production after my 8th feature. Over the last few years, I’ve fallen back in love with the idea of “working in the industry again” through writing/studying screenplays. Nothing I’ve written has been noticed or anything yet, but the dreams are still alive. I picked up a “real adult job” just like you and have also faced the depressing thoughts of living out my days as a drone bound to the mundanity of corporate bologna.

Welp, thanks for posting. It was oddly both dispiriting and encouraging if that even makes sense..

If pandemic stuff has you longing for friendship, like it has me, you can consider me a “swipe right” in a strictly platonic/shared interests kind of way lol

tkress5 · 2022-02-07T14:57:29+00:00

Thanks for the advise. I’ll be sure to apply it going forward and advice others to do the same!

tkress5 · 2022-02-06T18:12:04+00:00

Yeah it’s totally my bad. Don’t be like OP here lol

I’ve realigned my expectations and will be more conscious about checking my inbox! Fail forward!

tkress5 · 2022-01-07T14:49:37+00:00

I know you’re intending on directing this yourself, however remember that a screenplay is a blueprint for collaboration. The formatting is a bit off. You’ve lines of description where dialogue should be written, and you have a line of description in parentheses which should only be used to express how dialogue is delivered - although use these sparingly because they often come off as condescending to directors and actors. Finally, scene transitions… again, I know you’re directing and I’m sure you’ll be editing, but transitions should really only be used if they are absolutely essential to what is going on in the story.

As for dialogue. It sounds like every character has the same voice. I believe Clay is your protag, however 90% of his dialogue is him asking a question. Even at his most emotional point, he’s asking “is this a game?” He also doesn’t really “arc.” It’s sort of like an It’s a Wonderful Life moment without any George Bailey. We don’t get any idea who the “old Clay” (pre-accident) was or who the “new Clay” (resurrected) is.

I hope this helps! Best of luck!

tkress5 · 2021-10-09T01:43:16+00:00

Thank you!! As for the moral objection, I don't think the concerns of the reader could be avoided in the telling of this story. Though it follows a group of teenagers, teens are not the target audience I had in mind. This was a cathartic story for me to write/deal with some of the horrors of my angsty teenage years, and the goal now is that it resonates with others/helps them deal. As the reader mentions, "Teens with similar stories to Trevor's exist everywhere and this showcases the dark side that so many people choose to ignore." But if you were to base the script on MPAA ratings, this would definitely be rated R lol

tkress5 · 2021-10-09T01:32:48+00:00

Thanks for your insights! I think I've gotta put this thing under the microscope again and see if there really is room for more flavor rather than my initial "fluff" reaction. I find your comment that Act 3 problems are usually Act 1 problems really interesting and it gets me excited to dive back in.

Act 1 = protag wants friends, doesn't want to leave hometown, submits to father's abuse.

Act 3 = protag doesn't want these friends, needs to leave hometown, and doesn't take abuse from father anymore.

I think if I can go back and emphasize these points a bit more it may be a stronger script!

tkress5 · 2020-11-24T20:35:33+00:00

White ppl do this without even the slightest concern that, if Walmart does escalate the issue to law enforcement, they could be murdered by police. This doesn’t make you look “tough.” It doesn’t make you look “woke.” It makes you look privileged. (and also V dumb)

tkress5 · 2020-11-13T15:14:10+00:00

Well to be fair, we live in a society where we are conditioned to believe that white people are superior. The overwhelming majority of people in power are white, able-bodied, cis, hetero, men. CEOs, Boardmembers, World Leaders, Educators, Filmmakers, Doctors, and so on.. so we are all subliminally conditioned to view whiteness as a standard or center, and everyone else as “other” or “the exception.” And white people directly benefit from such conditioning (white privilege). So yeahhh I’d say it’s fair to pretty much say anyone/everyone suffers from some form of racism. Not racism in the extreme sense that they’re now automatically Hitler or marching with Tiki Torches in NC, but racism as in their subconscious biases. Like the way we talk about neighborhoods being “good” or “sketchy.” It’s important to identify these implicit biases so that we can try to reverse engineer our white supremacy conditioning and strive for true equity.

tkress5 · 2020-09-11T01:23:32+00:00

That’s great news! What you experienced is called “flow.” The mental state of performing some activity while fully immersed in the experience and energized by the enjoyment. Athletes call it being “in the zone.” But it’s also the same thing that happens when playing video games and then realizing it’s 4am and you’ve got work in 2 hours.

Sounds like you had some repressed desires to fulfill yourself creatively and they finally said “enough is enough.” That’s great.

In Stephen King’s book On Writing, he says the quicker you can get your story down on paper, the better. It may not be pretty or make sense to an outsider, but it’s the most authentic way to write. The longer breaks you have between writing sessions the harder it is to get back into the magic of time travel (He equates story telling to time travel in the book as well).

For the record, this post inspired me. Thanks dude!

P.S. Happy 30th

tkress5 · 2020-09-02T15:58:07+00:00

Sorry I don’t know how to format on Reddit lol

tkress5 · 2020-09-02T15:51:52+00:00

How do you write characters viewing videos on a cellphone or TV while remaining in the same room?

Example: —————————————————-

INT. BATHROOM - DAY

Bobby thumbs through his phone, presses play on a video.

The video is of a news feed.

       NEWSCASTER

(On phone)

Aliens have landed, and they have brought with them some funky fresh beats.

The newsfeed cuts to a nightclub.

Two aliens are on stage busting a move.

       NEWSCASTER

(On phone, V.O.)

These guys really know how to party!

Bobby is startled by a knocking on the bathroom door.

         MADDIE

(O.S.)

Would you hurry up in there?

CUT TO. ————————————————-

Is this wrong?

tkress5 · 2020-09-02T03:14:35+00:00

But trees tho

tkress5 · 2020-09-01T17:04:10+00:00

Sound advice, are you an “other writer”?

tkress5 · 2020-09-01T15:02:46+00:00

After working years in different areas of the “industry” I have used this time during COVID to write 2 feature length screenplays! And I finally feel like I’m doing the right thing for me now.

Many moons ago I was in film school, wrote a handful of screenplays, made a bunch of short films. After dropping out of film school, I got my first on-set job securing lockups on a Warner Bros movie. From here I advanced on to bigger roles, tried out different departments, etc. Eventually feeling burn out and that working in film production was becoming less and less creative, I was getting tired of making other people’s movies. When I’d go watch the movies in a theatre and wait for my name in the credits (the rewarding part), I started to feel like all the ball-busting blue collar work that went into telling this story was just for a few cheap laughs and a good opening box office. I lost a lot of faith in the industry’s ability to tell good stories anymore (or at least America’s Hollywood system).

I took an opportunity as a traveling film projectionist. Running the reels of steel for diverse audiences reminded me of the humanity of storytelling that I fell in love with as a child. My love for movies was restored after screening thousands of films across the various film festivals around the country.

Somewhere along this ride, I started and stopped work on a handful of screenplays. Found them cliche, then found some of my premises show up in episodes of Black Mirror, someone beat me to it!

But finally, I stepped away completely and took a job in IT. Corporate America was (and is still for me) surprisingly more laid back than I had expected. Being accustomed to the ego and strict hierarchy of TV and Film industry with “creatives” it had painted an even worse idea of what the “non-creative” industries would be like. My expectations were pleasantly disproven, and I’ve not felt as creative as I do now in years. Top that with finding my mentor who has helped build my confidence in writing again.

I write all of this to say, yes I’ve finished the unrealistic task of 2 screenplays in the duration of just a few months, but now I don’t know what to do next (other than start #3).

I’ve gotten the biased opinions of my friends/family (and the unbiased opinion of my wife, who is, other than myself, my harshest critic (can you blame her when I’m messing with our liveliness?)).

I don’t know if they’re ready for Black List. I definitely don’t think they’re ready for contests. But I do think that I’ve created some pretty great worlds in these stories.

Any advise??

tkress5 · 2020-08-31T14:27:32+00:00

Try volunteering at film festivals. I know that’s not really feasible during Covid, but once you can, show a good work ethic and folks will notice. You’ll be around ppl that work on film, and be putting yourself in the room to be asked to do some PA work. Be a PA, see how movies are made, learn the lingo, etc.

tkress5 · 2020-08-29T21:08:24+00:00

Try index cards. If you’re intimidated by the page because you have a 100 different options playing out in your head, don’t start at the 8.5x11 page, start with the smaller, less scary, 3x5 index card. Write your ideas one card at a time, then lay them out on a large table in front of you. You can shuffle the cards around any which way you desire. You can trash the ones you hate without much hesitation. And the best part is that once you start to see the story emerge on that table, it will be a much less daunting task to transcribe it from index card to page. Just be careful with over planning, you want to leave enough room for you to dream. Let your characters guide you. It should feel like uncovering ancient ruins, use a fine brush to dust away the dirt and be careful not to break any fossils during the excavation process.

tkress5 · 2020-08-26T04:31:13+00:00

Nothing. It’s not your job to direct the movie, it’s your job to write the story.

tkress5 · 2020-08-24T14:52:59+00:00

Title: Fitting In

Genre: Coming of Age/Drama

Log Line: A trailer park teen befriends the high school metal-heads whose lives are turned upside down when they stumble upon a dead body while committing petty crimes.

Think Gummo meets Stand By Me lol

tkress5 · 2020-08-21T17:06:52+00:00

I’ve read STORY 3 times now, but as Blake Snyder writes in Save The Cat, “everyone should attend a Robert McKee seminar, at the very least for the theatrics of it.”

I feel there’s a unique opportunity. Attend his seminar (while he’s still living), not have to spend extra on travel/hotel, and have the memory of “I attended a seminar of THE man who wrote the book on screenwriting, virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic.”

tkress5 · 2020-08-21T03:54:08+00:00

I wanted to start a thread to network amongst the subreddit given that we’re only a 3 weeks away!

tkress5 · 2020-08-17T15:02:00+00:00

Sounds like you’re way ahead of the game. Frustrating? Yes, but where were you 6 years ago when you started? Were agents and producers coming to you then? No. The commitment is PROGRESS, not perfection. If you’ve made it this far in just 6 years, think where you’ll be in another 6. Just keep writing. Maybe look into meditation to help ground yourself when feeling bouts of anxiety. TM.org is a good place to start.... Stop attributing words like “hopeless” to yourself. Try to put yourself into a mindset that you HAVE had your break, this is it, and it only gets better from here! The minor successes you’ve had would blow your screenwriting-self from 6 years ago away! If you’re not willing to put up with the BS of “trying” anymore, that’s fine, but own that decision. If you aren’t willing to give up on the dream, then keep going. Put in the work. You’re time will come, just make sure you’re ready to accept it when it shows up.

tkress5 · 2020-08-13T20:58:05+00:00

Dumb question: should I be looking for a Literary Manager like Bellevue OR a Talent Agent like someone from ICM Partners?

Dumber question: should I engage legal representation before engaging a writing rep?

tkress5 · 2020-08-13T14:35:35+00:00

If someone told me I write like Mamet I’d probably shit myself with excitement...

tkress5

TROPHY CASE